


I Like You

by CanaryCry



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Grayson (Comics)
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Missing Scene, Seizures, Spies & Secret Agents, Spyral, Unresolved Romantic Tension, Unresolved Sexual Tension, Vomiting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-14
Updated: 2016-03-14
Packaged: 2018-05-26 17:02:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6248239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CanaryCry/pseuds/CanaryCry
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tiger stopped thinking Dick Grayson was an idiot a long time ago. He'd just never worked up the nerve to say it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Like You

**Author's Note:**

> Missing scene from Grayson #17 and my interpretation of what Tiger was going to say before he was so rudely interrupted, will likely turn out to be canon divergent when we find out what the hell's going on in Grayson #18.
> 
> I also invented some technology that may or may not exist in Spyral. Because reasons.
> 
> Warning for vomiting and seizures.

Dick Grayson wasn't really an idiot. It was an easy mistake, what with the way he conducted himself on the job. Easy to mistake his banter for airheadedness, his principles for incompetence. Perhaps he even preferred it that way. His role as Robin was much the same. His cheer, his ridiculous behaviour... it was all a distraction. Tiger had no doubts that some part of it was genuine—how else could the man maintain it every day of his life?—but he'd learned the hard way how dangerous it was to underestimate Dick Grayson.

Maybe Dick sensed a shift in Tiger's understanding. Maybe that was why he sometimes let the mask slip, just an inch. Because he'd stopped lying about his agenda. Because he actually had a point, and Tiger knew it. Because one day he lay, desperate and gasping with Tiger's hands wrapped around his throat and had no other option.

Tiger still could've killed him. If he hadn't let his curiosity get the better of him. Turning on Spyral felt somewhat akin to hacking at his own arm, but he understood the necessity.

Dick had overcompensated with his mask for a while. The man derived far too much joy from finding new ways to torture Tiger's eardrums. The songs were by far the most offensive of his games. Perhaps he had feared betrayal, when their renegade partnership was still so new. Perhaps he was embarrassed he'd let himself slip. It didn't matter anymore.

The mask was gone now. Dick spoke of a summer camp with such warmth and a soft nostalgia, nervous laughter trickling through his sentences like water. Dick had never spoken much about his father outside of practicalities before. Tiger couldn't bear to admit how much listening to Dick talk about Bruce Wayne with such open affection, after everything the man had put him through, had made him ache. He'd known Dick was capable of holding that much love, letting go of anger and hate when it began to hurt more than it helped. He'd read Helena's report of that mission with Midnighter and the mob worked into a frenzy by a disembodied brain, and how Dick had been able to save them all with his own emotions. That had been a bizarre read, but it made more sense to him now he'd worked with Dick so closely.

Honestly, that whole story hadn't helped Tiger think much of him. He was still too angry about losing Alia at the time to have any patience for the man. He understood better now, that the paragon brain mission had been uniquely suited to him while the mission against the Old Gun had not. Of course, he knew better regarding what had happened to Alia now, so maybe she had been counting on him to behave the way he did. Tiger wasn't sure he wanted to know how Dick would take that.

But Dick's softness, his openness the night he talked about summer camp...

Somehow, Tiger hadn't been able to muster his usual prickly exterior. Dick had managed to disarm him without lifting a finger, urging him to speak without consciously doing so.

 _I like you_. Maybe Tiger would have kissed him then. He hadn't thought that far ahead yet.

But, of course, Tiger didn't get to finish his sentence, or make that decision, before that shapeshifting woman punched him in the face and ruined the mood. Maybe he could've picked it up later, if Dick hadn't emerged from his encounter with their other opponent, eyes bleeding and full of darkness that both did and did not belong there. There had been the occasional hint of it before, quickly concealed and laughed away, but all the pretenses and jokes were gone now. This was a Dick Grayson that Tiger was unfamiliar with, the kind of man who could infiltrate a spy organisation and successfully deflect suspicion for months, even if it forced him to bend his own rules to do it. Who could use all the tools Spyral gave him to manipulate people to serve his mission, even if it hurt them. A man who could bend without breaking, who could justify almost anything if it served a greater good. A man of few words and little patience for chatter.

This man was Batman's son.

For the first time, Tiger found himself chattering to a silent partner, as Dick soared across the cityscape back towards their car, his movements sharp and angry.

“Dick,” Tiger called after him, barely keeping up with his violent pace. “Where are we going? Aside from the car.”

Dick dropped to the ground with far less grace than usual, face pinching in pain. His cheeks were coated in the blood dripping from his eyes.

“Drive,” Dick said curtly, slipping into the passenger seat. Tiger had half-expected he would demand to drive this time, but he had just pushed the limits of his hypnos. It was a wonder he was still conscious.

Tiger found the eyedrops, filled with medication developed specifically to soothe the damage the hypnos could do. Dick flicked his hand, an impatient motion, but Tiger refused to start the car until Dick had cleaned himself up and administered the drops.

“Will you tell me our destination now?” Tiger pressed as he turned the key in the ignition.

“Helena's last known location,” Dick replied, rubbing his forehead.

“Is that wise?”

“They're going to kill her,” Dick snapped.

“I'm glad to see your conscience did not leave with your sense of humour.” Tiger got the car moving, watching Dick out of the corner of his eye.

“Just get us there.” Dick rattled off the address, slumping back in his seat. Tiger passed him a bottle of water. The hypnos could have unfortunate side-effects at the best of times, and Dick had been forced to push much further than he really should have gone.

“Do you need to extract the hypnos?”

“It's fine,” Dick muttered.

“You're still bleeding.”

“You wouldn't have noticed if you were watching the road instead of staring at me.”

Tiger screeched the car around a corner. “Good spies know how to multi-task.”

“Shut up.”

Tiger didn't. “We cannot reach Helena in one trip.”

“We'll make it one.”

“How will we protect her if we're too tired to fight? You, especially, need rest.”

“I've had worse.” The bleeding seemed to have slowed down a little at least. Dick cycled through tissues to dab it all away. “Shut up and drive.”

Tiger acquiesced, for now. He didn't want to stop either, but they would have to at some point. He would delay it as long as he could, but Dick's condition worried him. And he hadn't joked nearly as much as he usually did. Not since taking down Frankenstein's monster, and even then it had felt different. Forced, maybe.

He hadn't dared say anything, but Dick had been worrying him for some time now. He'd been quiet for days, until he brought up the summer camp, and even then there had been some kind of resignation about it.

“ _You can go ahead and call me an “idiot” now, Agent 1,”_ he had said. It was amazing how much guilt a few words could inspire in a person. Tiger had been cruel to him. Angry. He hadn't wanted anything to do with Dick, even before everything happened with Alia. Dick had laughed it off, before Tiger had realised it was a defence mechanism as much as it was a part of his personality.

Dick closed his eyes, his breathing shallower than Tiger would've liked. Agents had been known to suffer seizures after particularly taxing interrogations. It was inevitable. Dick didn't use his hypnos as often as many other agents, and that lack of tolerance could make it all the worse.

“How are you feeling?” Tiger asked.

“Fine,” Dick said.

“Don't lie.”

“I'm fine. I have to be.”

“It does not work like that.” There was a recovery kit in the backseat of the car. Tiger couldn't reach it while he was driving, and Dick was in no condition to find it. If he got worse, they would have to pull over.

Dick didn't respond. He pressed a hand over his eyes.

“What is it?” Tiger asked him. “Talk to me.”

“My eyes are...” He wriggled his fingers in a strange motion.

“Blurry?”

“Mm-hm.”

“Anything else?”

“Nausea.”

“Damn it.” Tiger pulled over. Even if it was a false alarm, it was better to be safe than sorry. Dick's breaths were loud in the cabin of the car, hands shaking. It was hard to tell whether it was panic response or the beginnings of convulsions. Both could mean a seizure.

Tiger jammed the car into park and grabbed the recovery kit from the back as Dick fought with the door, opening it just in time to vomit onto the ground outside.

There was a building up ahead Tiger knew for certain would be empty. The problem was, he didn't know if Dick could hang on long enough to get there. He carefully reeled Dick back into the car and pressed a small circular device on his temple that would temporarily deactivate the hypnos, hopefully minimising the damage.

“Can you talk?” Tiger asked.

Dick blinked, eyes glassy and unfocused. Driving was too risky with him in this state. Tiger rolled the car forward a few paces, away from the vomit, before cutting the engine entirely.

Dick managed to stumble out of the car under his own power, but quickly collapsed on the ground, body rigid. Tiger jammed a coat under his head and removed his escrima just before he began to convulse, at which point all he could do was time it and wait it out.

His watch said it lasted a minute, but it felt like an hour, at which point the convulsions stopped and Dick fell limp and unconscious.

Tiger carefully shifted Dick into a recovery position on his side. He slid Dick's escrima holster off and loosened his belt for easier breathing. It was at that point the stench of ammonia hit his nostrils and he knew Dick had lost control of his bladder during the seizure. Tiger sighed, brushing Dick's hair off his face, and mentally catalogued their remaining clean clothes. It could've been worse; at least it was just urine. Tiger had witnessed less fortunate agents in the past. He hoped Dick wouldn't remember anything later; he'd be mortified enough as it was.

Dick wrapped his fingers around the hand in his hair, squeezing tight enough to bruise.

“It's just me,” Tiger assured him. “You had a seizure.”

Dick's fingers stayed in place for several seconds before they dropped away.

“Can you sit?”

Dick made no reaction. Tiger doubted he'd even remember these few minutes right after the seizure. He didn't want to touch him again, not without knowing how he'd take it. Some agents reacted violently. Others panicked. A few simply shut down or didn't react at all.

“You're safe,” Tiger said gently. Whether Dick understood anything was unclear. They wouldn't be going anywhere for a while. They just had to hope Helena wasn't in immediate danger.

Dick didn't move again for several minutes, but his eyes were open, breathing still shallow. He eventually reached back to grasp Tiger's hand.

“Can you move?” Tiger asked softly. Dick sat up, as slow as Tiger had ever seen him, and let Tiger help him into the car. They drove the hundred metres or so to the nearby building. Tiger had to half-carry Dick inside, keeping his voice low and soothing because Dick's breathing was not easing up.

Tiger got his pants changed and settled him on a mattress on the floor, rubbing his back as he shook and took sharp, hitching breaths.

“I'm sorry your first seizure took place so far from safety,” Tiger said, offering Dick his hand to squeeze again. “They are rare. It may not happen again.” He'd have to repeat himself later when Dick was feeling better. Dick curled into Tiger's lap, pressing his hand against his eyes so hard that it had to hurt.

Eventually, the tremors subsided and Dick fell into sleep. His breaths still weren't the greatest, leaving Tiger freezing in fear with every pause, every hitch.

Tiger didn't touch people often outside of combat these days. He and Dick had always kept a careful distance between each other. Some of that was down to trust, which was hard to come by considering everything that had gone down before they went rogue.

Tiger found himself drinking in Dick's features, as pale and drained as they were from the events of the evening, and wished he'd had the nerve to speak up about how he felt sooner. There had been moments, quiet moments, when he could have said something. Dick could joke as much as he liked, but he was still human; believing his one companion couldn't stand his presence had to wear on him. Besides, no one was joking now.

It was possible Dick would wake up his usual self—calmer, more given to humour, maybe still holding a sliver of that softness if they were lucky—but something told Tiger that wasn't going to happen. If anything, Dick would be angry at himself for delaying their rescue mission and that would make him grim and closed-off again. If they didn't reach Helena in time, there would be no consoling him.

“I wanted to tell you something earlier, before we were interrupted,” he said softly. Dick wouldn't remember this, even if he heard it. But Tiger needed to say it, to understand what he even wanted to say, to put some order to the thoughts racing through his mind. “I like you. Very much. Maybe as more than a friend. I... do not understand when that happened. You are a far more complicated man than I ever wanted to acknowledge. You fascinate me. And worry me. I wish we had met under better circumstances. Maybe we could have...” Tiger had to laugh at himself. “Forget I said that. Foolish thought.”

Tiger shut up then, staying awake to watch Dick for signs of any further problems.

Dick woke a few hours later, just as the sun found them through the chipped windows. He made to rub his temples, stopping short as his fingers brushed the hypnos inhibitor.

Tiger removed it for him. “Easier than taking out the hypnos. Do you remember?”

Dick shook his head. “I don't remember anything after getting in the car.”

“You gave me Helena's last known location,” Tiger told him. “You had a hypnos-related seizure not long afterwards.”

“Oh. Great.” Dick sat up, wincing. “How much time have we lost?”

“A few hours.”

“Shit.” He tried to scramble to his feet, but gasped his way back down.

“Easy. You are not fully recovered.”

“ _Ugh_.” Dick rubbed his forehead. “Some seizure. We need to go.”

Tiger eased him to his feet. They eyed each other—Dick's gaze wasn't quite as focused as it could have been, which was a concern.

“What?” Dick asked.

“You're still unwell.”

“I'll get well in the car.”

“I doubt it.”

Dick started for the car. “Look, once Helena's safe, I'll take as much time to recover as you want me to take, but right now, we don't—”

Tiger grabbed his hand. “You don't need to prove anything to me.”

“Don't I?”

“I...” The words that had flowed so easily when Dick was unconscious had apparently scattered to the winds. He needed him to know, but he—he couldn't find the words.

Dick stared down at their joined hands. Tiger couldn't read his expression.

“Does this bother you?” Tiger asked.

Dick met his eyes with sudden clarity, shaking his head, and squeezed his fingers. “Later.” He swallowed. “We'll talk about this later.”

Tiger nodded. They didn't have time to hash this out right now, not when they had an old friend to save. Dick would need some time afterwards to feel like himself again. They could talk then. That would give Tiger some time to untie his tongue.

All they had to do was survive long enough to get to that point.


End file.
